FIVE PLAYERS TO WATCH: AMERICAN LEAGUE
5 PLAYERS TO WATCH

MIKE TROUT

A year ago, it was Mariano Rivera’s farewell tour, a national love-fest for a man esteemed in even the cities where the Yankees are hated the most. This year, it’ll be 162 games (at least) of goodbye tributes to Yankees captain Derek Jeter, who can still play a bit. But here are some players expected to have major impacts this season:

CF, LA Angels

1Best all-around player in baseball, without a doubt, and that’s the opinion of 56 percent of the other major leaguers in an ESPN The Magazine poll. Trout is still only the second-best hitter in the AL — and will be until Miguel Cabrera ever exits his prime — but Trout does everything better than anybody anywhere. All with a contagious sense of joy and now with a big raise.

1B, Baltimore Orioles

2The Birds have two of the most brilliant players around in center fielder Adam Jones and third baseman Manny Machado, but the guy who terrifies opponents is “Crush” Davis. He announced his presence with authority last year, hitting a homer in each of the first four games of 2013, driving in 16 runs in the process, and finishing the season with 53 homers and 138 RBIs.

2B, Seattle Mariners

3Funny, but the 10-year, $240 million contract given to Cano by the M’s is highly reminiscent of the 10-year, $252 million the Texas Rangers gave Alex Rodriguez to leave Seattle. Cano has left behind the Yankees and that nasty A-Rod business to start anew with the Mariners, who clearly are counting on him to lift them out of their constant state of embarrassment in the AL West.

1B, L.A. Angels

4The rest of the three-time MVP’s career is simply too impressive, to put it mildly, to start ignoring him after one bad season. Still only 34, Pujols has been smoking the ball and running around the Cactus League like a player with new legs and feet, ostensibly because his knee is nearly back to normal and the plantar fasciitis that sidelined him last year is healed.

RHP, N.Y. Yankees

5Who? Well, if the name is somewhat unfamiliar, it’s because the only closer the Yankees have known for the last 18 years was the last guy wearing No. 42. The new Yankees closer has all of eight career saves, all recorded over five years as understudy to the incomparable (and now retired) Rivera. Exit, Sandman. Enter, uh, “Sweet Home Alabama.”